GORILLAS
DR. TARA STOINSKI president, CEO and chief scientific officer, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund
“Gorillas are the gardeners of Africa’s immense rainforests.”
I’m absolutely delighted that gorillas are part of the New Big 5. Gorillas are incredible animals – intelligent, caring, majestic. They share more than 98 per cent of their DNA with humans. Like us, gorillas have friends and enemies, and enjoy good meals and naps in the sun. They form relationships that last for decades and risk their lives defending their families. Gorillas care for their most vulnerable and grieve their dead.
Despite our close genetic ties, gorillas are one of the planet’s at-risk species. When Dian Fossey began her groundbreaking research in the 1960s, there were a few hundred mountain gorillas left. In fact, she predicted they’d be extinct by 2000. Instead, decades of conservation action in Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo has resulted in an all-to-rare success story: mountain gorilla numbers are increasing. But with just over 1,000 remaining, this success is fragile. They remain a conservation-dependent species.
Their cousins, the Grauer’s gorillas, are facing a dire future. They’re only found in DR Congo. The majority live outside of national parks, with no formal protection. In the past 25 years, their numbers have plummeted by about 80 per cent, primarily a result of poaching. Fortunately, local communities are working to secure ownership over their lands and protect these globally important forests and biodiversity. The international community needs to support the Congolese people’s efforts, which may be our biggest hope in preventing further forest loss and ensuring a future for Grauer’s gorillas. Gorillas are the gardeners of Africa’s immense rainforests. Their daily activities – foraging, nest building, roaming – keep the forest intact by spreading seeds, clearing vegetation and producing fertilizer. Healthy forests are essential for the thousands of other species that live there, including chimpanzees, forest elephants, leopards and golden monkeys, so protecting gorilla habitats means protecting other species as well.
We also need these forests to remain healthy and biodiverse because our own survival depends on it. The Congo basin houses the second-largest tropical rainforest on the planet and is one of our best natural defences against climate change. If we can save gorillas and their incredibly biodiverse forest home, we may just save ourselves too.
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